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Whatever Happened to the Gaming Mascot?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sonic-now-in-rehab dept.

Ground Glass writes "Back in the days when consoles were measured in bits, they were also measured by their mascots - interestingly-designed characters that easily encapsulated everything the machine and its parent company stood for in gaming. Today they are no more than hangers-on, surviving either by cynically marketing to the very young or by remaining vestigial elements in games that would have been great with or without them. The next generation is coming, but mascots are nowhere to be found - so where did they go?"

6 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. there's plenty of mascots by bunions · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Quake guy, Gordon Freeman, the 'zug zug' guys from warcraft, I could go on for hours.

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  2. They retired by leonbrooks · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Goodness me, I remember Sonic from when I was a teenager (all of those years ago!) -- we're tending towards 40-year careers here, and counting. Few humans would be doing so well after all of those decades, so why should a mascot?

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  3. They grew up and had different lives by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Whatever happened to the videogame mascot?

    Sega horribly overmilked Sonic and drove it into the ground. Nintendo took their flagship (Mario) and stopped using it to ram games down people's throats (with the exception of cameos and smaller appearances, we haven't seen any serious/obvious Mario milking attempts since the SNES days. Remember Mario Paint and Mario is Missing?) Sony never fully developed a mascot, yes there was Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Jax, Dexter, Ratchet and Clank but they were never fully supported and either died out or stuck with their developers when they changed platforms. Bungie/Microsoft obviously uses Master Chief as their mascot but given how short they've been in the business and the fact that they've only made two games with the character, its hard to pass judgement on them (there were SEVEN Sonic games on the Sega Genesis alone compared to Bungie's/Microsoft two on the Xbox).

  4. Re:Wait, mascots are normal? by assassinator42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I might call Master Chief the mascot for the Xboxes. I'm not sure about PS2.

  5. Re:They're all dead. by cno3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Snake? Snaaaaake!

    As for gaming mascots, isn't MGS4 pretty much the only lure Sony has to garner interest in the PS3 right now?

  6. Re:Why Mario is timeless... by rjung2k · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Noone ever wants to BE Mario, they don't think he's "cool", but they find him funny and entertaining in a why that doesn't rely on patting themselves on the back for going along with the latest fad. He's sorta like Charlie Chaplan, except less jewish..."

    Or Mickey Mouse, but less plague-infested. ;-)

    On an anecdotal note, my son has recently gotten started with a Nintendo DS Lite, and in the space of a month, his big games are New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 64, and Mario Kart DS. I wonder if he even realizes that there are video games with characters that aren't named Mario, Luigi, or Yoshi...

    (Okay, and Nintendogs, but he was so thrilled when he found the Mario cap in that.)

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    --R.J.
    Electric-Escape.net